Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Two more megas go to waste

Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino were accidentally revealed by the official Korean website, and Gamefreak seems to have forgotten that the big reason why Slowbro's so great and Audino's not even worse than it already is is access to Regenerator. Well, NEITHER keeps it. Shell Armor for Slowbro and Healer for Audino. Sure, the stat boosts are solid, with defense and special attack for Slowbro and both defenses for Audino, and Normal/Fairy for Audino is only reasonable, but no Regenerator or Leftovers... that's going to make them go the way of Mega Sableye for sure.

Oh well, Slowbro's already around the OU cut-off line anyway, so it's not like it really needed the boost. Audino on the other hand...

39 comments:

  1. They should have given audino unaware. That would have made it amazing. Also there was a screen shot on Twitter of mega audino with the hp bar and the mega evolution symbol wasn't there. Maybe it's just an evolution. After all there is nothing official of them being mega.

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    1. The real evolutions never change that little. It's going to be a mega.

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    2. Either way, because it wasn't intentionally distributed, there's always the off-chance that things changed (probably not in the case of Slowbro, giving it shell armor is exactly something they'd do). Either way, at least in Slowbro's case it has access to Slack Off so it doesn't really need leftovers (Oblivious would have been better than Shell Armor either way though). As for Mega-Audino, Healer kind of sucks but keep in mind that it's a respectable double-triple battle ability. (Frankly, Audino needs a regular evolution not a Mega, especially since it had same BST as Chansey and that thing evolved....)

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    3. Slack Off eases healing, but that's not to say it doesn't really need Leftovers. After all, if that was the case it would be running something else. It doesn't. Leftovers is just the best item for it, period.

      And yes, it IS Mega Audino, if only because the official site clearly identified it as such.

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    4. I don't disagree on the leftovers point, but if the damage taken is reduced enough it then it sort of counters it (think of it as like an assault vest). I'd still at least wait and see.

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  2. I wouldn't call Mega Slowbro a wasted Mega slot - though it definitely misses Regenerator; without that ability, it's not going to do nearly as well as a defensive mon.

    What could be interesting, though, is Mega Slowbro as a lategame sweeper. Based on the stated stat boosts, let's assume it gets something like 160 Def/130 SpA/100 SpD. The set I'd probably use, this being the case, would be Calm Mind/Slack Off/Scald/Psyshock. Let's tentatively go with a 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD Bold spread - obviously, though, you'd adjust this for the metagame, trying to let Slowbro survive what it needs to while giving it as much power as possible.

    What that means is that you're pretty much invincible, physically speaking. So you can remove Slowbro's checks early in the game, then bring it in on something that can't threaten it. (read: any unboosted, non-SE physical attacker) Set up a Calm Mind or two and sweep; your SpA is much improved over standard Slowbro, meaning that you don't need a prohibitively long set-up to pose a threat to anything. Calm Mind patches up your "weak" special bulk and turns you into a wrecking ball. Furthermore, pre-Mega-evolving, you can still switch in to tank random attacks and threaten a Scald burn; Regenerator will patch up chip damage nicely.

    Basically, I see a successful Mega Slowbro as working more or less like Tobybro 2.0. Once you get it in and set up, it sits there and shrugs off any attack coming its way, retaliating with ludicrous boosted attacks until you win.

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    1. That's actually pretty clever. Usually you want to Mega Evolve ASAP, but with Slowbro you'll have to wait for the right timing. I wonder though... I've never been on Showdown myself, but I've seen footage of it and it seems it makes Pokémon Mega-Evolve automatically. If that's the case, they're going to have to change this.

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    2. So basically, what Mega Tyranitar does with Dragon Dance?

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    3. (Oh, and Shell Armor would actually be somewhat acceptable for such a set, since crits are the bane of set-up sweepers.)

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    4. Actually, yeah; given that CM/Slack Off Mega Slowbro can be assumed to ALWAYS move last, I can see Shell Armor being pretty handy. Not a great ability, but not useless; it'd definitely be handy to remove the possibility of - say - a random non-STAB Thunderbolt crit screwing over your endgame. If Tobybro is the comparison, that's a legitimate improvement over the original model, given how famous RBY Slowbro was for being screwed over by crits bypassing its Amnesia boosts.

      I mean, Regenerator would still be so much better, but once you get past the initial stage of "really? Shell Armor?" it's an ability with some genuine utility for the role that Mega Slowbro is most likely to serve. For what it's worth, I'd say it's definitely a better ability on the Pokémon than Mold Breaker on Mega Ampharos, since that amounts to - uh - breaking Sturdy and landing neutral Thunderbolts on the less-than-omnipresent Thundurus-T and Lanturn

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    5. I was about to mention something like this, actually, Slowbro has gained a lot from a pure defensive standpoint and as a single time setup it's a great idea.

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    6. Well, it's certainly not far-fetched to say it could be given Shell Smash.
      Besides, Mold Breaker for Mega Gyarados isn't the best ability, but it's still used 3 out of 4 times.

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  3. My item of choice on Slowbro is actually Rocky Helmet. In UU I run a defensive core of Chesnaught, Tentacruel and Slowbro and with Regenerator and Slack Off it stays alive for quite a while. This combo allows me to switch in on pretty much any physical non-super effective move with impunity punishing the aggressor and usually forcing a switch allowing me to get off a free Slack Off. Fif Dors scenario sounds like an acceptable option. Regenerator Slowbro is just so good, it's hard to imagine the mega will out shine it.

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    1. Well you better start planning for a replacement, Slowbro might move to OU pretty soon, especially now that its biggest check there is gone.

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    2. What's the source of Slowbro's new-found popularity, anyway? It didn't really get anything new to work with that I recall in Gen VI. (It was up in use before the Aegislash ban)

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    3. Looking at where Slowbro appears in the lists of checks and counters, I see Excadrill and Garchomp, both of which were banned last gen, Medicham, which sucked, and Talonflame, which is new. There's also Keldeo and Landorus-T, which are also more popular than they were last gen.

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    4. Also, Slowbro has always been notable as a good pokemon for OU - hell, Smogon did a Create A Team project in Gen 4 which was built for Heracross sweeping that featured Slowbro for a while, though Latias did the role better as it turned out - it's just that now it's finally gotten a few small things that help it break through. And that's great, considering last gen it was one of about two pokemon able to counter a well played Keldeo (and unlike Celebi, it doesn't have a move distinctly able to destroy it, X-Scissor off the attack stat you don't buff isn't going to beat Slowbro.)

      I'm sort of waiting for Weezing's big break through to be honest. I know one day it's going to happen, though it may take an evolution or Mega to get there.

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    5. Makes sense then why it would be popular. I guess to me the surprise is more that Slowbro rose but Jellicent sank like a rock (considering Jellicent's typing gives it a similar role overall). Then again, Jellicent is more similar to Slowking who isn't as popular (special wall), so maybe the surprise is misplaced.

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    6. Mega Slowking with Unaware. Please make it happen, Gamefreak.

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    7. It would make sense given its "Oblivious" nature (the shell isn't as prominent on the king) but knowing Gamefreak they'd probably give it Magic Bounce (or Oblivious). Slowking needs one definitely though, as does Gallade (since Gardevoir got one, why not?). Not sure what ability I'd give to a Mega-Gallade though.

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    8. Super Luck maybe? With all those high crit moves it has, it'd be pretty good.

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    9. Super Luck would be good, but not likely something GF would give it. Someone needs the ability that can use it effectively. Togekiss is hardly seen without Serene Grace (for good reason), Absol mega-evolves anyway, Honchkrow probably rather use Moxie (and if for some reason one uses Murkrow, Prankster), and Unfezant is Unfezant so 'nuff said on that one.

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    10. Absol used to use Super Luck all the time, though.

      The real problem is that ability got a massive nerf bat when Gamefreak nerfed crits. They should make Super Luck do some hilarious boosts to make up for that, like a 30% crit boost or somesuch.

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    11. Critical hit domains got buffed substantially past +1 to make up for it, though. +2 is now 50% and +3 is 100%.

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    12. Oh, I see. So Farfetch'd is actually able to pull 100% crit sets, eh?

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    13. Yep. Too bad a mega with Sniper would still be woefully underpowered.

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    14. But Slowflake we NEED to give a mega-evolution to Farfetch'd! And Mightyena and Raticate and Spinda and Kricketune and Beedrill! Because you know Mawile is obviously not just good because its mega evolution got Huge Power AND is an inherently good type offensively and defensively.

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  4. I can sort of see Mega Slowbro getting some use. It gets stuff like Curse, Calm Mind and Amnesia, and while defensive boosts that aren't Cotton Guard aren't usually useful, with Shell Armor it only really fears Toxic. Slack Off makes up for the Regenerator loss somewhat. With a Calm Mind set, it could set up against special attackers and power up Scald. However, it's still fairly situational and would be hard to execute, and with all that it would still only be marginally better than Leftovers-Regenerator Slowbro. There's always the problem of it taking up a mega slot, too.

    Mega Audino is useless no matter what, though.

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    1. There is a dedicated base for double and triples that I'm sure could get some mileage out of it. Shoot, Nintendo's official format is doubles I could see it being good in those situations. It was never built as a singles Pokemon anyway which is kind of sad as the game is built in such a single-centric manner.

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    2. Still, take a look at the new moves introduced in gen 6 and tell me most of these aren't doubles/triples things.

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  5. It seems like they're trying to make more defensive Mega pokemon to counter the mostly offensive ones in XY.
    Mega Salamence apparently has boosted defense and Slowbro, Audino and Altaria were bulky Pokemon already.
    And that's good.

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    1. I wouldn't call a Pokémon with such a great attack stat and Aerilate "defensive", defense boost or not. If it gets the boot to ubers it's going to be because it hits too hard offensively.

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    2. Well, it depends on the stats and all we know at the moment is a boost in defense.

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    3. Still, I'm no gambling man and I'd still bet money on attack remaining its highest stat.

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    4. I'm not sure if you were aware, but people are speculating on Mega Metagross to have two Mega Evolutions. This is because gamefreak never mentioned the Mega Stone for Metagross. Notice how in the torchic event, they clearly say "The Blazikenite." And if I'm not mistaken, they only showed Mega Charizard Y at first. What do you think?

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    5. Like the same people who said that Audino got a regular evolution not a Mega because the screenshots didn't show the Mega symbol (because footage from game alphas and betas is the exact same thing that gets released)? Unless Nintendo et al explicitly say something to the contrary, there's just one mega-stone for any Pokemon and that's the safe assumption one should make. No different than assuming that a Pokemon does NOT have a mega-evolution until something shown to the contrary.

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    6. Umm, what kind of idiots do you frequent? Because we don't know the names of ANY of the new mega stones. Does this mean they're all getting two? Of course not.

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    7. It's cause they mentioned the Mega stone for the event Blaziken but not event Metagross

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    8. They also mentioned the mega stones for every X/Y mega but none for any ORAS mega. If this is all you have to go on, this is fucking stupid. "Hey kids, if you buy ORAS at launch you can get this sweet Mega Metagross! But if you buy Alpha Sapphire, you'll get something else entirely, BUT WE'RE NOT TELLING YOU!" This would be so shitty, not even Nintendo is dumb enough to pull that kind of crap.

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